OVERCOMING PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION THROUGH RESILIENCE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Indigenous Peoples face many challenges, including lack of recognition, loss of land, vulnerability to climate change, and trauma. These factors, combined with historical and on-going marginalization, manifest in inequities such as poverty, educational disparities, disproportionate child removals, and health concerns. Lack of recognition manifests in multiple ways. For example, in Africa and Asia, Indigenous Peoples have not experienced large-scale displacement and often not acknowledged (United Nations, 2017). In the US, Indigenous Peoples can seek federal recognition as the government maintains a list of federally recognized tribes eligible for funding and services. This is true in other parts of the world like Japan where in 2008, the Ainu were recognized as Indigenous Peoples (United Nations, 2019). Indigenous Peoples in Costa Rica are also seeking federal recognition and land restoration (Stocker, 2013).